The present invention relates generally to apparatus and techniques for producing electromagnetic devices and more particularly to such techniques and apparatus for making stators for dynamoelectric machines.
In the manufacture of a dynamoelectric machine stator, a number of relatively thin stator laminations are punched or stamped from a strip of material and stacked together to form a stator core typically having a centrally disposed axially extending generally cylindrical bore with a plurality of axially elongated slots communicating with that bore as defined by a like plurality of stator teeth separating adjacent slots. The stator teeth frequently have tips near the stator bore extending toward one another, forming a gap where the slot communicates with the bore. Windings are then disposed in the stator slots by either in-slot winding techniques or by forming the windings and then axially or radially inserting those windings into the appropriate core slot.
The size wire which may be used in a stator winding is limited by the gap between adjacent pairs of stator teeth, or stating the same fact in a different manner, for a given size wire the gap between adjacent stator teeth must be sufficiently large to admit that size wire. While different considerations prevail for the different techniques of placing the windings in the stator core slots, the slot gap still limits the wire size, or the wire size limits the slot gap, and this gap can not be further reduced, or the wire size increased, according to the known stator fabricating techniques.